2016 Finalists

Meet the companies that made the 2016 Finals

SUINCol

EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

** GOLD PRIZE **
SUINCol incontinence treatment is helping all women suffering from moderate to severe incontinence who want to self-control again their bladder function overcoming the associated socially intimidating handicaps in daily life giving back self-confidence and control. SUINCol aims to develop and commercialize a new generation of injectable biomaterials that provide permanent healing for stress urinary incontinence by neo-muscle tissue regeneration. A team of three highly experienced scientists, Dr Hans Mattias Larsson, Dr Eva-Maria Balet and Dr Elif Vardar, and one medical surgeon, Dr Ganesh Vythilingam, are willing to bring this innovative treatment option to the market.

Lymphatica

EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

** SILVER PRIZE **
Lymphatica is a medtech startup project, spin-off from the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) and the Swiss Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL). The team is composed by two enthusiastic and fully committed bioengineers, Dr. Marco Pisano and Dr. Valentina Triacca, mentored by Prof. Lucia Mazzolai, head of the Angiology Service at CHUV. Chronic lymphedema is a dysfunction of the lymphatic system resulting in chronic swelling of the limbs, pain and recurrent infection: a disabling condition for which there is no available cure today. At Lymphatica, we have developed the first implantable lymphatic vessel to effectively treat patients affected by Chronic Lymphedema.

LambdaGen

Nanyang Technological, Singapore

** BRONZE PRIZE **
The LambdaGen envisions developing next generation personalized immunotherapies in the form of most potent CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells directed against B cell lymphomas. In this direction, T-cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (TiPSCs) would be armed with “strategic CAR design” and “safety switches” using a novel non-viral λ-integrase mediated site-specific genome insertion technology developed in the laboratory of Prof. Peter Droge at NTU, Singapore. Thus, this genetically modified TiPSCs would not only circumvent tumor evasion issues but also provide an unlimited source of controllable CAR-T cells addressing the problems of T cell persistence, survival and re-infusions in the leukemia patients.

HydrUstent

3B's Research Group, Portugal

** PEOPLE'S CHOICE **
A urinary stent is a thin tube, which is inserted in the ureter to prevent or treat the obstruction of urine flow from the kidney to the bladder. Currently, nearly 100% of the people who have an urological stent are likely to develop a bacterial infection within 30days, which increases morbidity threefold. Per year are deployed in Europe approximately 93000 catheters and 37500 in the US. The team, composed by Alexandre Barros, PhD student with supervision of Prof. Rui L. Reis, Dra. Ana Rita Cruz Duarte and Dr. Estêvão Lima has been working together since then to design and mitigate the technological risks associated with HydrUStent. HydrUstent, a biodegradable, anti-bacterial urological stent, which eliminates the need for a second surgery, required nowadays for stent removal. The team has carried out successfully the first in vivo validation in a pig model and is currently extending the study. The IP has been secured and technology developed is protected.

BIOreACT

3B's Research Group, Portugal

Have you ever wondered why drugs cost so much and take so long to reach the market? BIOreACT team proposes a novel system for 3D cell culture that simulates more realistically the human body on the lab bench. The bioreactor proposed by the team is composed by disposable interconnected dual-chambers which are adapted for mono and co-cultures in a 3D matrix allowing the breakthrough of testing 2 different scenarios (for example drugs) in a more realistic 3D environment and interfaces. The system can be used as static or dynamic, since the dual-chambers are adaptable to a dynamic platform commercialized apart.

FedOx

University of Southampton, UK

The increasing demand for blood transfusions accompanied by a lack of donations places the UK facing a blood shortage crisis. FedOx aims to develop and commercialise a safe artificial blood substitute that is readily available, universally compatible and does not depend on blood donations. The project will be managed by five scientific researchers who are highly motivated by the technology covered by FedOx. With these qualities we believe FedOx will be the first artificial blood substitute approved for clinical use in the UK with the potential to bridge the gap in a market that currently knows no alternative.

Restorgan

King's College London, UK

Restorgan is a preclinical stage cellular therapy company aiming to deliver the new standard of care treatment for acute liver failure. Liver failure caused over 600,000 deaths worldwide in 2008; the current standard of care, liver transplant, depends on organ donation and requires lifetime immunosuppression. Our lead platform, HepaCap, is spun out from the Hepatocyte Biology and Transplantation Group at King’s College London. With the first generation platform successfully validated in 8 paediatric cases, HepaCap co-encapsulates mesenchymal stem cells and hepatocytes within an alginate polymer bead, presenting an off-the-shelf and scalable approach to restoring liver function.